Shadi Hamid reimagines the ongoing debate on democracy's merits and proposes an ambitious agenda for reviving the lost art of democracy promotion in the world's most undemocratic regions. What happens when democracy produces bad outcomes? Is democracy good because of its outcomes or despite them? This democratic dilemma is one of the most persistent, vexing problems for America abroad, particularly in the Middle East--we want democracy in theory but not necessarily in practice. When Islamist parties rise to power through free elections, the United States has too often been ambivalent or opposed, preferring instead pliable dictators. With this legacy of democratic disrespect in mind, and drawing on new interviews with top American officials, Shadi Hamid explores universalquestions of morality, power, and hypocrisy. Why has the United States failed so completely to live up to its own stated ideals in the Arab world? And is it possible for it to change? In The Problem of Democracy, Hamid
